Vocabulary

                Since vocabulary is such an integral part of comprehension, it most certainly should be taught explicitly and in some context that is real to the students. My third graders at Oak Grove learn the vocabulary words that are embedded in the story, which is better than going down a list, looking up the definitions and testing on the meanings a week later. We must show how the words fit into real life, and how they are used in context, instead of teaching in meaningless isolation. Once new words are introduced to a student, I think that they must be repeated and used over and over again. Vocabulary words can be likened to learning a new language. If you don’t use the language, you will lose it. Teachers must continue to use, use, use the new words to help the students to remember the words. Also, the words should be modeled in different settings and contexts to ensure to show the diverse meanings of the word. For example, a lot of words can be used as a verb and as a noun. My kids are learning action verbs right now, and in some sentences in the workbooks, it would use the verbs as a noun, and vice versa. This confused the students greatly. I think that the more the students use the words in different contexts, the better they will remember them.

I had a teacher at another college I attended who used very rich, advanced vocabulary. I would carry a dictionary with me (this was before smart phones), so that I could figure out what he was saying. There was one word that he used quite frequently, “ubiquitous.” Because he used it so much, I picked up on it, and now use it myself. It was only because he used it so often though. This is what we have to do with our students to enhance their vocabulary.

                One thing that the book said concerning ELL’s is similar to an article I read last semester. The book stated that many teachers think that their English Learners are doing fine because they hear them speaking well, but their language is actually on a social level, not academic. The article I read was about how teachers think that math is a universal language, and these students automatically know it, because numbers are the same in every language. The problem is that these ELL’s don’t always have a rich “math vocabulary,” which can cause them to be behind in this subject as well. Teachers often times further do these students a disservice by watering down the rich vocabulary. They may use “take away” instead of subtract, for lack of a better example. Students must learn the academic vocabulary in all content areas if they are to be successful.

                One strategy from the chapter that I found to be helpful was the Vocabulary Self-Awareness Chart. I think it would help because it shows students (and teachers) what they know and what they don’t. The first step to learning is to first identify what you don’t know, so that you can learn it. As much as I hate it, that sounds like dang metacognition. I also appreciated the story at the beginning in which the teacher is probing his student to look up the new word, and then add it to his electronic dictionary. I don’t know if computers will be available in every classroom, but I think that personal dictionaries are a great idea. Every child is going to arrive in your classroom on such a diverse continuum, I think that it is important for each student to have his or her own dictionary that is “all theirs.” Overall, I enjoyed reading this chapter, probably because I really enjoy vocabulary. I can’t wait until Tuesday. Dr. B said it was going to be “awesome!!” J

Questioning the way we Question

Questioning is an effective way to activate schema when beginning a new lesson. It allows students to have time to think about what they will be learning, before being thrown into it. I do think however, that teachers should question the way they ask questions, to ensure that our students are getting the most out of the strategy. “Yes or no” questions should be kept to a minimum. Not much thought must be generated to just say yes or no, and we want to teach students how to think.

Since students are not used to responding to quality questions, teachers must give them a guide. If students can remember the three basic topics of rhetorical styles, Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, then they will be better equipped to self-monitor. This point is crucial, because we must get our struggling readers to a more independent level, so that they can progress.

I did not realize that ole Bloom was responsible for “HOT” questions, but I learn something new every day. Anyway, I think that teachers should use the HOT method every single day. Start out a basic level, and each day, progress and go deeper into the subject, each day asking more thought-provoking questions. You don’t get this type of teaching from worksheets every day. These types of lessons must be really thought-out and planned by the teacher first. But I love the way these HOT questions teach and train children to have their own opinion and own thoughts. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? These questions force students to show that they comprehend the material, are able to apply the material to real life, and even create their own ideas about the topic. I really don’t understand why this is something that we learn about at USM, but never see it actually being done….

About class Tuesday: I adored the video we watched on TED. That truly takes his job seriously. He carried such an air of excellence that I want to have. It really made sense to me to use real life objects. We have the technology, so why not make it more relevant to our students? The clip art is only a picture of something, but we can use the real thing to bring things to life.

I think that the strategy that I will use the most is the QtA strategy, which beckons students to interact with the author of a text. I love what the book said about helping students to take the ideas off of the page and relate them to their world. Is that not what it is all about? After the reading, comes a grand discussion, where more questions are raised, and more concepts built. This is what I call talking about learning. In this strategy, the teacher is a facilitator or guide, not the main one doing the lecturing. This is how you know that real learning is going on, because students are questioning, talking, and bouncing ideas off of one another. I think that if this type of strategy were to happen in a typical classroom, the teacher would freak out and the students not know what to do. They are so accustomed to listening to the teacher, and then giving the information right back to the teacher, without ever being accountable for thinking or analyzing.

I like the ReQuest strategy, I am just imagining students thinking of short, simple questions to ask their partners just to get finished with the assignment. How do we get students to think when they do not want to think? I think that I would wait to use ReQuest until I got students more accustomed being critical thinkers. Right now, students are just so used to being told what to think and remember that many of them will have to be trained to think.

Notetaking

I don’t think that I had thought so extensively about the science of notetaking prior to reading this chapter. There are so many ways just to do one thing. I always thought of notetaking as something that was the student’s responsibility, but as the chapter highlights, teachers have a considerable responsibility in the process as well. If teachers fail to present the information in a clear and concise manner, then students cannot possibly take organized notes that will help them study later. The teacher should organize the lecture in such a way that creates an easy note-taking atmosphere. How can we do that? One thing I think we can do is present a piece of information, and encourage students to look at you and listen first. If they are writing, they may miss something. Say it, pause and let them listen, then say it again, and this time allow students to take their notes on the information. I had an algebra teacher who used this method and it really made sense to me. He said that if we were writing down the problem, we were not paying as much attention to the process, or we were not listening, so he had us just watch and listen first. After he gave us time to copy down the notes and the problem.

“Detailed information, including technical vocabulary, names, dates, and formulas, should be presented visually as well as verbally…” I absolutely agree with this statement. I think that teachers should use every mode of presenting the information that they can, in order to reach all learners. This also serves ELL students, as they need to experience new words in different ways. The author also suggests saying something like, “This is important,” to ensure that students take note of the right things.

On “Notetaking in English:” Although I do not think that it is appropriate for teachers to legitimize “artists” who say things like “I f-ed your wife” and “F the peace,” but I think Mr. Herrera does have the right idea about bringing the interests of students into the classroom. I do think that it is an excellent plan to bring in lyrics of popular artists, as long as it is appropriate. That is a great way to get students involved in read alouds, poetry reading, and maybe even writing some of their own. Not sure why the book refers to Tupac’s music as “work,” when it is actually violent rhetoric-trash, but I digress. I like the idea of using real music in the classroom.

The bottom line of this chapter is that notetaking is a necessary skill and students who know how to take effective notes will do better and understand more. Students who do not master this skill will not be as successful. Notetaking is a life skill because you will always use it, even if you do not decide to go to college. Teachers should help students figure out their own method of effective notetaking and teach them how to take notes that will enhance their learning. I think that taking a little bit of extra time to teach students how to take notes will yield a great investment down the road. With that being said, I am not sure that I have ever been taught how to take notes effectively. I thought I was good at it because I usually just write everything a teacher says, but perhaps that is not the best way. Hopefully I can improve on my own notetaking skills.

Questions: What are some ways of helping students to find out which notetaking strategy is best for them? Is your notetaking strategy directly a reflection of what type of learner you are? For example, if you are a linear thinker, could you also benefit from seeing a concept map or a matrix with lots of pictures, or would this learner be better off with using an outline method? Should teachers hand out guided notes for students to study, or would it benefit the learner more to actually write themselves?

Chapter 6

“On the surface they (graphic organizers) are such a simple tool that there is a temptation to merely distribute them and ask students to fill them in.” I chose this quote because it seemed to be the most true statement. Used improperly, graphic organizers are only used to mark as task off of a list. This is true with a lot of things. We forget why it is that we do certain things, and just start going through the motions of a certain task. However, if done right, these organizers seem like they could be quite effective tools. I appreciate that the graphic organizers are so diverse. They can be used as a pre-reading tool to build and activate schema, or during to increase comprehension, or even after to expand on ideas and take to the next level. They also are effective in realizing the connections between ideas and subjects.

I think that this strategy is especially good for learners who need to create some type of visual representation of what they know and/or have learned. I don’t think that it would be quite as effective for learners who are more linear thinkers. A concept web or graphic organizers may be too jumbled and busy for this type of learning style. Personally, I like everything being all over the place when I take notes, so I would like using an organizer. I do think that, as the chapter stated, that these organizers would be great for ELL’s. It would help them to make the connections between what they already know, and allow them to communicate with peers, where they really need confidence. If graphic organizers are so effective, then why do teachers not use them more often? Even though teachers said that they agree that they should be used, most still do not.

I would like to ask the author how long it took him to compile his book of strategies.

Chapter Four and "Text Talk"

                Reading this article was less fun to me because it gave a rebuttal to a few strategies that I thought were supposed to aid in comprehension. The first was pictures in a book. I have previously learned that pictures help children to understand the story and now I learned that they do, except when they don’t and they actually distract. The next was background knowledge. If I had a quarter for every time I have heard how much “schema” and a child’s environment is essential to comprehension, well, I would be living by the beach somewhere. But, now I read that background knowledge can distract. Thanks, article, for busing that bubble. However, in the end, I gathered that the moral is to use background knowledge, but don’t rely on it. Use the pictures in the book, but don’t rely on them either. Now I understand why Ms. Walker would always read the entire page, and then after, show us the picture. I always wondered why she did that. I was sitting there thinking, “Just show us Franklin the Turtle already!” Turns out, that was a comprehension strategy.

I agree with the article that “Children can handle challenging content.” As long as the material is not too high above their “zone,” they can use what they know about the world to make sense of the difficult text. I found that with the second graders last semester, they actually did better when I read them a book that I initially thought would be on the hard side for them to understand. Because it had a challenging plot, it kept them engaged. On the other hand, when I read a predictive text book, they caught on to it by the third time, so by the fifteenth time, they were tired of repeating with me, and therefore got distracted. It is amazing the behavioral problems that we can likely avoid by keeping kids challenged and engaged. (The books were Anansi the Spider series, if you were wondering).

On chapter four:

I loved the example in the beginning about the (effective) history teacher, who using colonial-style lanterns, engaged students by making history into story hour. I hear of so many people who hate history because they were made to memorize seemingly meaningless facts in social studies. I think that teachers need to be great story tellers. I need some work on this!  

“Students need to be read to by their teachers on a daily basis.” Agreed. This this is the type of more challenging literary material, of which the article spoke. I think that more so than not, we challenge the students, but simultaneously provide support and scaffolding.

This chapter made me think of Dr. Hanna a lot because it talked about self-questioning and self-monitoring. She used to say that we have to be the voice inside the child’s head asking, “Does that make sense?” so that students learn to monitor themselves. Also, the book discussed how teachers are responsible for conveying to students the importance of new knowledge. We must show the “why” and not just the “what.” Teaching children how to be strategic is teaching them to be independent readers and thinkers.

Lastly, I learned a new word, “interspersing”, so I think that I will intersperse it into my spoken vocabulary.